Needles and pins

You know the feeling, but not on this scale. This is perhaps one of the most common side effects of MS which most sufferers will experience most of the time and mention more often than anything else. Why is this? Simply put, everyone has at one time or another experienced this sensation, and it is easy to replicate. If you wish to do this then all you need to do is to sit on one leg, foot under your backside, on a sofa. Don't change your position in any way for approximately 45 minutes. After this period, without moving your body, determine whether there is any sensation in the foot you are sitting on. If you can still feel your hand touching your foot, then continue sitting for another 45 minutes ... remember to forgo any type of movement of any kind.

Now ... get up quickly from your seated position and walk briskly towards to kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee. If you have done this correctly, then you would have experienced the following. Once you had decided to move your leg, it would have felt heavy, awkward and, in some way, not part of your body. Once you attempted standing on it, it would have been weak and possibly buckled under your weight. It would also be accompanied by a sharp pain. Finally, on your road trip towards the kitchen for your coffee, you would have experienced a distinct weakness in that leg and a shooting pain with each step you took. After about 2 minutes the harshness would have calmed down a little to the more familiar pins and needles that everyone experiences. Viola ... welcome to our world. This is only a taster of what we experience and this is the reason why most MS sufferers walk in a variety of strange and awkward ways. We would rather be walking in normal ways like most people do, but it is not always possible.

This experiment was conducted on only one of your legs. Now try it with both, and you will then get the full experience, but be warned with both legs in this state you may fall flat on your face while trying to get up from the seated position. If the pins and needles were only limited to the legs, it would be blessing, however, this is not the case. Virtually any part of your body that has nerves will experience this sensation. Furthermore, from a purely male perspective, believe me when I say that there are some parts of your body where this sensation is perhaps more weird than it is painful. I doubt that this needs elaboration.

Due to way that your body is wired, it is possible for the pins and needles to affect either the upper half or the lower half of your body, or the left side or the right side. Thus paraesthesia (the official name for pins and needles) can be and often is "hemi" in its effects.